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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Summer Vortex!

Hi everybody! I am sorry postings have been so scarce these days! This summer has certainly been crazy. Between moving out of our house in Harrisonburg (!!!), into my new office, out of our storage, and into our new house (I'll let you add that up) we feel as though we have been moving for weeks! (oh, wait, we have. oh shit.) Bruises and soreness aside, Jeremy and I both feel relieved and happy to be in our new place in Charlottesville. It really feels like a homecoming. Our new place has a huge HUGE garden plot and is a small house in a good way vs. our last place with the very small garden and the way too huge house. In terms of energy conservation, this place is much more our style... all electric utilities and just enough space for two people. Nice!

So in the midst of all of this moving stuff we have been away from computers, and don't tell my blog this, but it has been so nice. I guess when school starts we will both be glued to this thing so its really important to get out and enjoy an unplugged and truly 'wireless' life until then! In other super progressive and futuristic technology news, Jeremy and I put our cell phone in the glove box of the car (for emergencies) and got a land line. Uh huh. Call us... maybe we will answer and maybe not... We are totally living in the future. I am stoked.

This summer we have been doing a lot of planning, thinking, and talking about our garden and about becoming more self-sufficient. we had put a lot of serious thought into buying a house but after looking and talking some more, we came to the conclusion that we should save our pennies and build our own house - the way we want it. This may take a while... We were very inspired by the idea of making something truly sustainable and by the new wave of people who are trying to live off the grid without being total hermits.

Along with this realization came a new found annoyance with the fact that eco-friendly and "green" have become such empty buzzwords. This was made very clear to me while watching t.v. at Mom's house... We saw a show called "Red, Hot, and Green". Holy crap. Okay. To their credit, they did use FSC certified lumber in their construction. But they did not talk about paint (chemicals, pollution, safer, healthier alternatives) or really do anything else in the episode that we watched that could be considered, eco-friendly , "green" (except for some actual green colored paint), sustainable, ecologically responsible, or aesthetically pleasing. Maybe I am too sensitive, or being too critical, but its upsetting because these ideas are very meaningful to a lot of people. I also have to fairly point out that it is a double edged sword because I DO like that people are talking & thinking about ecologically friendly options in their homes & lives more because it is so trendy. The bottom line for me is that being responsible and taking care of the earth is something we NEED to do. It is not fashionable...its practical, it is survival. Nobody is a perfect activist (least of all myself) but I really love to see genuine effort, not just buzz. Anyhow, it has made both Jeremy and I continue to consider ways that we can recycle, consume less, and make things ourselves with safe and responsible materials.

Well, that is enough for today, I will try to be better about posting! We will be in Richmond this Saturday for the Handmake craft fair outside of Quirk Gallery, so if you are around come and say hi. We will also be having a studio sale in August - but more details on that later!

Hope everyone is well!!!

xo,Allyson

p.s. One more thing, we have also had a lot of fun finding free food lately. If you are in VA, or probably the east coast in general, this is a great time to pick blueberries and raspberries! We picked a whole quart of blueberries in the national forest the other day and there were a million more there. Very nice indeed.

2 comments:

i wonder what it will be like when the trend ends, or what will be the next thing. because in my eyes, like you said, it is such a valuable and meaningful and important thing this green business, does it have to end? i guess like any true, good thing, the care-ers will go on caring long before and after it is left in the dust. i will be there. that is so neat you want to build a house! ever since i was a little girl i have thought about how i want an operational tree house. or at least sharing walls with them. where is your place in charlottesville? this is way too long for a comment. take care you guys.

About Me

This blog is run by Allyson Mellberg Taylor and Jeremy Taylor. We started it as a way to share some of our doings with friends and put a fire under our butts for the book that we are currently writing together about non-toxic artist materials. This has been a passion of Jeremy's since graduate school and he has done years worth of research leading up to the writing of this book. When we met during graduate school and started sharing living/studio space and making work collaboratively it became an important part of my life and studio practice too. I can't imagine making work any other way.